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Candidate threatened, campaign signs defaced

by Daniel DeBolt

Several of Mayor Mike Kasperzak's re-election campaign signs have been defaced along Cuesta Drive, with the words "liar" and "no" spray painted on them — possibly by the same folks who have been making threatening calls to him, he says.

Kasperzak suspects that those doing it are opponents of a plan to put a flood basin in the Cuesta Annex.

"I get a couple of people calling me," Kasperzak said. They say things like, "We've been watching you," and "You better be careful," and then they hang up, he says. "It's probably the same crowd."

The City Council is tentatively set to vote on the flood basin on Dec. 11. It has been proposed by the Santa Clara Valley Water District as part of a larger project intended to protect 3,000 properties if the Permanente Creek spills over its banks in a major flood event. Opponents say such a flood has yet to occur and that the largely untouched piece of open space will lose its unique appeal once the front portion is dug up and landscaped, possibly hurting wildlife habitat.

But opposition to it appears to have shrunken along with the size of the 4.5-acre proposed basin, which is now half the depth and volume of the original design.

"Some people aren't happy with the way the council is moving on the Cuesta Park Annex," Kasperzak said. "They want to leave it the way it is. It appears to me these are the same people. They can't give it up. Some people will just always be unhappy."

Email Daniel DeBolt at ddebolt@mv-voice.com